


Past Tense

by paigeeyovkoff



Category: NCIS
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-26
Updated: 2012-03-26
Packaged: 2017-11-02 13:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/369285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paigeeyovkoff/pseuds/paigeeyovkoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She looked at him, and then to the window before answering, "There were things from Somalia, that never got touched" -Rated T for mentions of rape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Past Tense

**Past Tense  
Words**: 2,161  
 **Disclaimer** : The only person I own is Eliza Deming; I don't think I'm not the only one to have this plot line though U:  
 **A/N** : Not really Tiva, but it was just there on the back of my mind.  
 _She looked at him, and then to the window before answering, "There were things from Somalia, that never got touched"_

…

Their victim was only thirteen. She was vulnerable, scared; that much that it haunted the agents. She was too young to have something like this happen to her, and that scared them.

That scared them because they knew if something like this was happening to a thirteen year, they knew anything could happen to them.

It reminded their boss of his first and only child. The one that died along with her mother, only when she was eight. Their victim did have red hair; he remembered that his daughter had red hair. It was from her mother, the way he remembered it.

What they didn't know is that one of their own had been in her position. She had planned to keep it that way, but their victim wasn't opening up to any of them. She knew, that keeping a secret wasn't going to help this case.

"Let me talk to her," the female NCIS agent said from the door.

She had been leaning there for some time, listening to what her fellow agents had been saying, and she knew that she would be able to get their victim to talk. Their victim wouldn't even tell them her name, so they had Abby running a facial recognition on her.

"What makes you think you could get something out of her Ziva? From how much she's said, I'm starting to think she  _can't_  talk," her partner looked to her confused.  
"Because Tony, I know what to say to her," she told him.  
"And how would that be?" he questioned, pressing on boundaries.  
She looked at him, and then to the window before answering, "There were things from Somalia, that never got touched"  
"Go, talk to her" their boss said.

She only nodded before walking out of the observation room. Gibbs was the only person who understood what she was saying; he knew there had been more than one thing different with her since she had come back.

He wasn't the only to figure it out. Their ME had known almost immediately. That was a small secret that had stayed between the two long-time friends. That they knew what had happened to Ziva.

"Boss, you sure she knows what to say?"  
"DiNozzo, shut up" his boss replied.

Ziva didn't say anything when she walked into the interrogation room; she grabbed the chair and pulled it around so that she was on the same side as their victim.

Anthony DiNozzo watched her like a hawk from the observation room, still not entirely sure whether or not his partner would be able to get their victim to talk.

"You're different" the victim whispered.

That was when Tony started thinking something was wrong. Ziva had been in that interrogation room with this girl before, and never got her to talk.

"You and I both," Ziva told her.  
"Who are you?" she asked.  
"Ziva David" the NCIS agent replied, "And you?"  
"Eliza Deming," the girl said in return.

Gibbs wrote down the name and handed it to Timothy McGee, who walked out of the observation room to give the name to Abby, who would be able to get more on her.

"Where do you go to school?"  
"I'm home-schooled," Eliza explained, "my parents thought it would be best for me"  
"I was home-schooled too" Ziva nodded, knowing why her parents had chosen an option like that.  
It was quiet, breathing the only sound heard, then came Eliza's small voice, "When can I go home?"  
"When we find out who did this to you," the NCIS told her, "I promise you can go home soon."

_She can't make that promise_ , Tony thought. He knew that Ziva had different ways of doing everything, but she can't make promises that she probably can't make come true.

In the corner of the interrogation room, the social worker was thinking the same thing. He had never seen an agent talk to a child like this, like they were family.

"Who teaches you?" Ziva asked casually.  
"My Mum, she used to teach at a school," the young girl smiled, "She was a principle at a elementary school once"  
"She must be pretty good then"  
"Yeah, she is" she agreed. Ziva nodded, she knew that it might be a touchy subject to talk about her parents.  
"I feel so stupid" Eliza muttered, "I thought he was our friend"  
"Petty Officer Williamson?" Eliza only nodded at Ziva's question.  
"He was my father's best friend," the girl told her, "He wouldn't do this, and I know that he couldn't do this!"  
"People are never who they seemed," Ziva explained to the girl, "Anybody could have this happen to them"  
"How would you know?" Eliza snapped at the NCIS agent.

Ziva sighed, looking towards where Tony last stood in the observation room.

This was the only secret her partner didn't know about her, "I was a Mossad officer, and my father is the Director of Mossad. And once upon a time, I was only a liaison at NCIS.  
My father gave me a choice, choose loyalty to my family and Mossad, or my loyalty to this team and NCIS. My partner had killed my boyfriend, trying to save my life. I couldn't trust him, I couldn't trust my boss, I couldn't trust my family, yet I chose to go with my father," she hesitated, this story had been modified when she told it to the team, not wanting to spook them of what happened to her when she was held captive in Somalia, "I was given a mission, it sent me to Somalia.  
I deserted my team when they were harmed, sending them back to Israel. I went forth, and was captured." Ziva could feel eyes from the observation room trained on her, as well as the small pair of eyes from the young thirteen year old, "I didn't think they would touch me, they had me tied in a room for a few days, but then, they were driven by that stupid male mind of theirs.  
They began by just hitting me, it grew intense, it would 'turn them on', per say. It was hard not to scream, because that was what they wanted. Nobody could hear my screams, and even if they could, they didn't care.  
The town was harshly disciplined, you either followed the rules, or they killed you. When they touched me, I wanted to push them away but I couldn't," the female NCIS agent wiped a tear away, "even with every piece of training I had received from Mossad and NCIS, I couldn't fight back. They over powered me, they were males, they had every right over me. They  _owned_  me."

Ziva looked towards the observation window, through the glass, she knew that she had caughter he partner's eyes. She knew that he was worried.

She shook her head, "I had faith in my team from Israel, that they would be looking for me, but they weren't. Instead, this team was, the team that I had left behind in America.  
While I was being pushed around, they were what little faith I had left."

At that point small Eliza Deming was wiping away her tears, realising that she wasn't fighting the battle alone.

"I felt useless, like there was no hope that I would go home, as though I was abandoned, that nobody had faith that I was still alive. They called me worthless, they pushed me around, and they  _abused_  me.  
Now that man, is dead, and I thought I'd never have to think about it again, but it's always there," she told her, "No matter how hard we fight against it, no matter whether or not we burnt our clothes or scrubbed our skin until it was chaffing, it's still there, in the back of our minds. There is no way to get rid of that. It will be a scar in our lives until the end of time, and Eliza, it makes us no different to every other person in the world"  
"It does," Eliza whispered, "it's as though you're dying"  
"But you are not, you are alive"  
"I wish I wasn't," the girl shook her head.  
Ziva placed her hand over the young girls, "Don't say that. You are lucky to be here, we all are. No matter what happened to you, no matter who knows your weaknesses, you are alive and well"  
"No I'm not" Eliza kept repeating, "It's still there, I know it is"  
Their forensics specialist opened the door and looked pointedly at Ziva, her eyes glazed with tears, "Ziva I've got something, important" she told her.

Ziva stood up slowly, her eyes still trained on the young girl. When Ziva had followed the Goth girl out of the room, she looked worried.

"Ziva, I ran those tests you told me to run, to make sure everything was fine," the girl stopped, hesitating.  
"Abby, what's going on?" she asked worried, Ziva didn't like the sound of it.  
"Eliza is pregnant" Abby whispered.

…

Tony watched the girl in the room, he was still slowly taking in everything his partner had just said.

Ziva had been  _raped_ , the girl that had so many walls up had kept a secret this big away from him.

But then he remembered what Abby had just told him. ' _Ziva came into the lab and asked me to run some tests on Eliza's DNA we had collected, Eliza is pregnant,_ ' those were the words that had come gushing out of Abby's mouth, the speed of light.

He felt bad for the girl, she was thirteen, and her entire life had been put on hold because of what this Petty Officer had done to her.

The Senior Field agent watched as Ziva walked back into the room, trying to figure out the best way to tell the young girl. When Ziva had finally told her, the tears that had been sitting on the brims of Eliza's eyes had finally started falling. She hugged Ziva, and the Israeli NCIS agent hugged the young girl back.

Tony really didn't know what to think, his partner had just told the entire team that she had been  _touched_ ,  _abused_ ,  _pushed around_  by her captors in Somalia, and this young thirteen year old was going to have her entire life ripped to pieces because of a foolish marine.

…

Gibbs had interrogated the marine, he had confessed to everything.

Eliza was taken home by worried parents who had received Ziva's full assurance that everything will be fine in the future. They had talked about Eliza's options, and her parents confirmed that they would call for any help if Eliza was to be in trouble, even if it was help with an appointment with the doctor, Ziva promised that she would do anything to make sure that Eliza wasn't put through any more harm.

The Israeli agent was worn out; the day had been tough, the case had been worse. She had rested her head on the desk and let small tears work their ways down her cheeks.

Falling asleep, her breath had evened out, and had been noticed by her partner. He looked at her, asleep, peaceful, as though nothing had happened in Somalia.

Tony grabbed her jacket and placed it over her shoulders, making sure that she would sleep that night. He placed the coffee he had brought back for her next to her arm for when she woke up, and left her to sleep, knowing the consequences if he was to wake her up.

Tony didn't know what to think after that case, his mind screwed up in more ways than one. He was tired, but had no thoughts on sleeping. What he wanted to do was, make sure the agent that slept on her desk across from him, wasn't going through anymore pain, that her past would be washed out completely.

He thought about how long he had known his partner.

The day they met after Kate had been killed, how he had found out how she had known so much about him. The day she was assigned as their liaison, and the day they had their first undercover assignment together. The day that he had gone to her apartment to talk to Rivkin, and instead ended up killing him.

Every word she had said to him in the fight while they were in Israel, and how she had stayed there instead of coming home.

The way he had found her in Somalia, and the way she looked when Abby hugged her. How she acted when she returned to NCIS as an agent, and the way their relationship had progressed as usual form there.

To him, Ziva was like wonder-women, she was invincible. He couldn't see Ziva as vulnerable as she must have been in Somalia, and he didn't want to see it. He was fine with the Ziva he saw before him right now.

When she stirred in her slumber, he smiled, knowing that when she woke up, they would have a fresh case on their pile to work and get rid of their worries on...


End file.
